Item Records for Integrated POR Websites

 Your website is updated daily from the information you enter into your item records within the POR program. Since the entire world could potentially see your inventory, it is extremely important that the information you enter into POR be accurate and informative for the end-user. This document will touch on some of the more important areas.

Topics Included in this article

• Divisions

• Category Names

• Excluding Items and Category

• Header Records

• Name VS Description

• Manufacturer and Model

• Specs

• Items Hidden on Your Website

• Item Images

• Suggested Item Package

• What's New Page

• Used Equipment for Sale

• Call for Quote

• Marking Items as “New” or “Featured” Items 

Divisions

• It is important to differentiate your equipment rentals, party rentals, sales items, etc. on your website to avoid customer confusion.  You can accomplish this by creating applicable divisions: “EQUIPMENT,” “PARTY,” “RETAIL,” etc.:

•  Program Menu - Configurations – Store Configurations - Store Divisions – Add New or Modify existing Divisions.

•  Next, assign a division to each item category.

•  Program Menu – Configurations – Item Configurations - Item Categories

•  Divisions and Categories determine the organization of your site, so it’s critical to set them up properly.  The POR Web Team will work with you to determine the organization of your site and the applicable divisions that you’ll need to create.

Category Names

• In some cases, you may need to rename your POR categories to make them more readable/usable for the online customer (no cryptic, abbreviated, or misspelled names!) The POR Web Team will review these with you.

Excluding Items and Categories  

•  You will most likely find categories and items that you do not want to show on your website. Categories to exclude from the site may include Parts, Supplies, Retail Items, Re-rent Items, etc. 

•  To Exclude Entire Categories: Program Menu – Configuration – Other Updates - Update Website.

•  Click on the two possible warning pop-up messages

•  Click on"Configuration Mode" then " 2. Select Web Categories"

•  At this point, you will see a list of categories that are currently being excluded from your website (shown on the right). For each category displayed on the left, select the check box for those you’d like to EXCLUDE from the website

•  When done, click on the buttons “Apply Selections” and then “Commit Changes”

•  Select option “6: Upload to Website” to save and upload your new categories to the website.

•  To Exclude a Single Item such as Gift Certificates, NSF Fees, Delivery Charges, etc. 

•  Program Menu - File Maintenance - Item File - Item Record Detail – Options Tab

•  Click the checkbox for hiding on the website

Header Records

• If you have header records created in your POR database, we do NOT upload the corresponding serialized records to the web.  This means that you only need to insert images & specs for header records and skip the serialized records (which will save you lots of time!)

Name vs. Description

•  The name field is a limited length field. This field must contain the name of each item record.

•  The description field is an alternative name field that allows for longer descriptions and is typically used for softer, more web-friendly naming conventions. (i.e. TABLE, BANQUET 8’ could be Banquet Table 8’x30”x30” High Plywood Top or Banquet Table 8’x30”x30” High Stainless Top )

•  For consistency, you can also use the Description field when printing contracts from POR.

(Refer to the Help section on Contract Format Editing)

Manufacturer and Model

•  If you’d like to display manufacturer/model info on your site, make sure the Manufacturer & Model fields in your Item Detail records are filled incorrectly.

Specs

•  Edit the Spec field on your Item Record Detail, as these will be displayed as “comments” on your site.

•  The type of information you would like to include in your Spec field is dimension, weight, general info about your rental, etc.

•  Be sure there are no internal notes in the Specs tab; internal notes should be moved to the Notes tab.

(Refer to the Help section on Item Specs)

Items Hidden from your Website

•  Items marked as Inactive (Options Tab)

•  Items marked as Hide On Website (Options Tab)

•  Items where the Quantity + Subrent are zero or negative (except Items Types of Rental-Package and Rental-Dynamic Qty)

•  Item with a type of Non-rental Asset, Sales-Miscellaneous, and Rental Miscellaneous

*Note: Any item that would normally be excluded from your website (based on the above rules), but is a Suggested Item in another item will show on your website.

Item Images

•  When adding images to your Items in POR, use images that are at least 250 pixels wide to give you the best quality on your website. 

•  To get the best quality, insert the pictures directly from your POR server, not from a terminal.

(Refer to the Help section on Adding Item Pictures)

Suggested Items Package

•  Creating package items will keep your category listings on your site uncluttered & easy for the customer to peruse.

(Refer to the Help section on Suggested Items Package)

A great example of a complete Item record: http://www.abcrentalparma.com/equipment.asp?action=category&category=27&key=EXC11B-1.

What’s New Page

•  If you’re planning to include a What’s New Page on your site, you’ll mark your individual Item records:

•  File Maintenance

•  Item File – Options Tab

•  Enter ‘<NEWITEM>’ in the Web Group field.  Be sure to type <NEWITEM> exactly, with no spaces, etc.!

Used Equipment for Sale

•  If you plan to include a Used Equipment Page on your site, mark your individual POR Item records. You must update the serialized item itself, NOT the header record:

•  File Maintenance

•  Item File - Tools pull-down

•  Mark items for sale option

•  Marking an Item For sale forces it to show on your Used Equipment For Sale page. Items flagged as 'Hide on Website' will show on the page.  Items marked as Inactive will NOT show up on the page.   

Call for Quote

•  To mark an entire category as “Call for Quote” (not individual items) by entering <NOPRICING> in the category WEBTAG field and “update website”  *Common for Party Stores

•  To mark an individual item as “Call for Quote” enter <NOPRICING> in the item records’ WEBGROUP fields

Marking Items as “New” or “Featured” Items                    

•  If your integrated website includes a menu button/link to display “New Items” or “Featured Items”, you can mark any of your POR item records by going to your POR File Maintenance menu, Item Files, selecting the item, and then entering <NEWITEM> (make sure to include the < and > characters and no spaces between words!) in the WEBGROUP field under the Options tab. 

•  If you then manually “Update Website” from your POR Configuration menu or wait for your nightly auto-update of the website’s online catalog, you’ll see your newly marked items on your “New Items” or “Featured Items” page

*Note: Any changes made to your POR data will be uploaded to your website each night. If you require an immediate update, you can run Update Website from the POR Configuration Menu.